USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 15
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Settlers of the township, other than those already mentioned, up to 1840 (fixed upon as the close of the real pioneer period), may be mentioned as: The Wolf brothers, who came with their father from Pennsylvania, and located three hundred and twenty acres in section 27, north of Hog creek; A. C. Prutzman, Edward S. Moore, William and John I. Majors and Charles F. Thoms (Mr. Thoms was at one time a Swiss soldier in Napoleon's army), in 1834; George W. Gardner and Andrew Goode, in 1835, and Joseph B. Millard and J. H. Gardner, in 1836.
BEGINNING OF THINGS.
The horticultural interests of the township had their origin when George Buck planted some apple trees in 1831, and Mr. Hoffman put some peach stones into the fertile soil during 1833. William Arney set out an orchard in 1834.
In 1832 Michael Beadle built the first frame house in the township, on the west side of Rocky river, near the bridge in Three Rivers.
The first birth was a daughter of Solomon and a grand-daugh- ter of Jacob McInterfer, in November, 1829, and the first death of an adult was Grandfather McInterfer, who passed away in 1831.
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This family also furnished the first bride-Mary McInterfer, who married David Winchell, a son of the first settler in the county, in February, 1830.
The first white male child born in the township was Asa Bear, son of John Bear, who came into the world while the parents were returning from a trip to Prairie Ronde.
The first school was taught in the old McInterfer cabin, in the winter of 1834-5, its teacher, Father Arny, having charge of thirty pupils.
The first road laid out by township authority was six miles in . length, and extended from the north boundary of White Pigeon township to the north boundary of Bucks. It was surveyed by Matthew Rowen in June, 1833.
The first bridge built over the St. Joseph river, within the limits of Lockport township, was that completed by Asa Wetherbee in 1838, and was located near the present structure. Its builder died in the State Insane asylum in the seventies.
LOCKPORT BOAT BUILDING AND BOATING.
The transportation of merchandise in the ante-railroad days was nearly all effected through the St. Joseph river. A shipyard was once established at Lockport, and Washington Gascon (who came to the township with Mr. Leland in 1834) built a number of keel boats and ran them on the river as early as 1836. Burroughs Moore (a settler of 1833) originated the idea of the arks, which were actually built by Captain Elisha Millard, considered the best pilot on the river.
After the first arks were made and loaded, it was found that nothing but flour could be safely carried in them. The first one which went down the river from Three Rivers, in 1834, was loaded with wheat, and as none knew the strength of the current, or the exact condition of the channel, the voyage turned out disastrously. The first stopping place made was Constantine, and the Knapps and James Smith, who were in command, cast the lines ashore, pulling some of the boards off the stern and letting some wheat into the river. They refitted and went on, but met with the same mishap at Elkhart, and lower down the river stove a hole through the bottom of one of the cribs. Another unload- ing and refitting followed, and the ark was finally wrecked at the "Granddad" ripple, Niles, its entire cargo being lost.
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This ended arking until 1838, the river freighting having been done, in the meantime, by keel boats. In the former year, when flour commenced to be shipped down the river, the arks again came into favor, as the strong points of their construction were well adapted to the transportation of this class of freight. The succeeding ten years were busy ones for Captain Millard and Captain Alvin Calhoon, of Florence township. An ordinary ark could carry from four to six hundred barrels of flour; it was not bad going down-river, but the return was sometimes "fierce." To overcome this drawback to the transportation business, Captain Calhoon constructed a fleet of small arks, which would carry about twenty barrels of flour each, and after unloading them he would bring them up the river in wagons.
The first arks that ran from Colon were built in 1841-2, by Captain Millard and loaded by John H. Bowman at his mill on Swan creek.
JOHN H. BOWMAN.
John H. Bowman was born in Mount Bethel, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, March 13, 1796. He removed to Brier Creek, Columbia county, that state, and resided therein until 1834, when he removed with his family, consisting of his wife and seven children, to Three Rivers. There, in the same year, he built the first frame house of any pretensions erected in that city, and which was also, for many years, the best in the country around.
Buying one hundred and twenty acres of land on Johnnycake prairie, Mr. Bowman began farming, and in 1836, with the Smiths of Prairie Ronde, bought the Beadle mill property at Three Rivers. With them he erected the Three Rivers flouring-mill, and began its operation in February, 1837. This business the firm of Smith & Bowman carried on, together with merchandising, for about two years, when the mill was leased and afterwards bought by Moore & Prutzman, while in 1838 Mr. Bowman began the erection of another flouring mill in Colon village with Dr. Voorhis. This mill was not completed until after the doctor's death, commencing ope- rations in 1839. Soon afterward Mr. Bowman sold three-fourths of his interest to his son, William F. Bowman, and in 1845 re- moved from Three Rivers to Colon to reside. He retained one- fourth interest in the Colon mills until his leath in 1855, actively managing the property during the whole period.
In the nullification times of 1832, Mr. Bowman was a major in the Pennsylvania state troops. In his younger days he was a
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member of the Whig party, but joined the Republican organiza- tion at its inception, though he died before he cast a presidential vote therein. He was a member of the legislature of Michigan two terms. Although a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in Pennsylvania, he never united with it in Michigan.
In May, 1855, Mr. Bowman went west on a tour of observation, was attacked by the cholera at Lexington, Missouri, and died after a short illness. The deceased was highly esteemed by his neigh- bors, and though sometimes despondent, was generally of a cheer- ful frame of mind, and liberal in the extreme toward the suffering and distressed.
TOWNSHIP OF CONSTANTINE.
Originally included in the old township of White Pigeon, Constantine was organized in 1831. The township took its name from the village, which was laid out in 1831 and which was christened Constantine by Niles F. Smith, its first merchant. Some time in 1828 William Meek, of Wayne county, made the se- lection of a location at the intersection of the Fawn and St. Joseph rivers. His family did not come until the spring of 1829, when he built a cabin for them, which was the first house either on the site of the city or in the township. He then went to Monroe and entered the east half of section 23. Judge Meek was first attracted to the spot by its advantages for a manufacturing plant, being first directed to the location by Leonard Cutler, in 1828, the latter then living on White Pigeon prairie.
MEEK'S MILLS, OR CONSTANTINE.
During the first year of his residence, Judge Meek cleared off and plowed a few acres of his purchase, but he came to the place as a manufacturer. In the winter of 1829-30 he began the erection of the saw-mill on Fawn river, or Crooked creek, just below its junction with the St. Joseph, and in the spring, before he had completed the mill, he constructed a dam and water- wheel. This pioneer mill and water-power, this commencement of the industrial life of Constantine and St. Joseph county, is more fully described in the general history-as befitting its im- portance.
For many years afterward, the place was generally known as Meek's Mills, although its rightful name was Constantine;
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the jealousy of White Pigeon is said to have seriously retarded the general acceptance of its more dignified name. The charge is undoubtedly founded on fact that many emigrants from the east, who first came to White Pigeon in their search for Constantine, would be on the point of departing discouraged, when the citizen of the southern settlement would come to himself with a start and exclaim : "Constantine ! Constantine! Oh, you mean Meek's Mills !"
Jacob Bonebright's family was the second to settle within the limits of Constantine township. They came from Pennsyl- vania in May, 1829, taking up land and building a house on sec- tion 26. Nathan Syas and family located in the same spring or summer; C. B. Fitch, afterward judge of the county court, came from Ohio in 1830 and built the first frame house outside of the village; John G. and William Cathcart in the fall of 1831.
JUDGE MEEK SURVEYS CONSTANTINE.
In August, 1831, Judge Meek surveyed and laid out the village of Constantine, there being then five families on its site. Mr. Smith, its first merchant, opened his little frame store on the bank of the river, at what would now be the south end of the bridge, and built his house at the corner of Water and Washing- ton streets, afterward opening the latter as a hotel. Isaac J. Ulmann was in partnership with Mr. Smith for a couple of years, and in July, 1834, John S. Barry left White Pigeon to engage in merchandise at Constantine.
Hon. John S. Barry was one of the ablest business and public men who ever resided in the place, which was his home from 1834 until his death in 1870. He served in the state senate three terms and gained a distinction enjoyed by no other public man in Michi- gan-of having served his state as governor for three terms. Be- sides operating his large mercantile and warehouse business, he became early and prominently interested in the Michigan South- ern Railroad, and it was largely through his management that it was lifted from an uncertain property to one of the leading cor- porations of the country.
THE CITY'S EARLY MANUFACTURES.
In regard to the early development of the manufactures of Constantine, which were also among the first in the township and
.
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county : Josiah Fisher, father-in-law of John Hull, of Florence, erected a shingle mill adjoining Judge Meek's saw-mill, but be- fore he could complete it and get it in operation, the water froze solid in the race, and not a wheel turned either in the Fisher or the Meek mill until spring. In 1835 Judge Meek built his second saw-mill and Isaac Benham erected the first foundry in 1837. The blast power for the latter was furnished by a horse, and Mr. and Mrs. Benham poured out the hot iron into the molds. This foundry made a specialty of the manufacture of andirons, and later Mr. Benham put up a foundry on the east side for plows.
There were a number of blacksmith shops in operation in the early thirties, but the next plant which could be designated as a manufactory was the tannery built by Mr. Armstrong, further up the creek, in 1836. Later, the father of Governor Bagley built and operated one in the village. Chairs and furniture com- menced to be manufactured at Constantine about 1833; House & Ulmann made a few plows in 1836, and Hunt & Grover turned out fanning mills in 1834. In the early forties a foundry was built and put in operation by a stock company composed of such mechanics as Brush Sutherland, Jason Shepherd, L. L. Richard- son and James E. Proudfit. These facts indicate how the early manufactures of the county were established.
FIRST TOWN MEETING.
The first town meeting was held in the school-house in Con- stantine village, April 3, 1837, Dr. Watson Sumner being modera- tor and Thomas Charlton, clerk. Following are the officials chosen : John G. Cathcart, supervisor ; W. C. Pease, clerk ; Heman Harwood, W. C. Pease, William Cathcart and Horace Metcalf, justices of the peace; Norman Harvey, A. R. Metcalf and William H. Adams, assessors; John Bryant, Ozias F. French, Alex. S. Sheperd, commissioners of highways; Erastus Thurber, constable and collector; Heman Harwood and John A. Appleton, overseers of the poor; Watson Sumner, Heman Harvey and Allan Good- ridge, school inspectors; Lyman R. Lowell, constable; Heman Harwood and John S. Kean, fence-viewers, and Erastus Hart, pound-master.
OTHER FIRST THINGS.
The first marriage in the township was that of Elliott Woods and Eliza Meek, who were married in 1830.
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The first death, in the same year, was a daughter of Nathan Syas.
The first school taught in the township was in the winter of 1830-1, by Thomas Charlton, in the basement of Niles F. Smith's store, Constantine village. In the summer of 1832, Miss Rhoda Churchill, a daughter of Dr. William Churchill and afterward the wife of William F. Arnold, commenced to teach school on the edge of the prairie; and she was the first "school ma'am."
NATURAL FEATURES.
The surface of the township is generally level and the land is drained by the St. Joseph and its branches. As it approaches that river, which passes through its southeastern, eastern and northeastern sections, it becomes more broken. Of its 22,715 acres, some 1,600 is included in White Pigeon prairie, the balance of the acres was originally covered with burr-oak and white-oak openings, some of the groves very heavy and others light and scattering. In the early times the river bottoms were also heavily timbered.
There are about four hundred and sixty acres of water sur- face in the township, the St. Joseph river, in its entrance from the south, first taking an irregular course near the southern line of sections 31 and 32, and then in a northeasterly direction through 33, 27, 26 and 23, city of Constantine, to section 13, where it bends more directly toward the north, and continues through three other sections before it makes its exit into Fabius and Lockport townships on its way to Three Rivers.
Mill creek rises in two forks, in sections 3 and 6, unites in section 7 and runs nearly south into the St. Joseph. Fawn river, or Crooked creek, enters the township near the southeast corner of section 24 and passes through the corporate limits of the city of Constantine, entering the St. Joseph from the east through the elaborate works of the Hydraulic Company. Black run is a little creek, which rises on section 16, runs generally south and enters the mother stream on the southeast quarter of section 32.
The soil of Constantine township is the same fertile, sandy loam, which characterizes the other openings in the county, and is highly productive of fruit, corn and the cereals in general. The boulder drift passed this township, except along the western, or Cass county line, where a heavy deposit of stone is found, which supplied the needs of the locality for many years.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
FLORENCE TOWNSHIP.
Florence township remained a portion of White Pigeon until 1827, when it was erected into a separate civil body, and the fol- lowing officers were elected at the meeting which convened at the house of Giles Thompson : Giles Thompson, supervisor; John Howard, Giles Thompson, Matthew Rowen and Jeremiah Law- rence, justices of the peace ; John Yauney, clerk; Matthew Rowen, Orrin F. Howard and George T. Gray, assessors; Solomon Wallace, collector; Alvin Calhoon, M. G. Craw and Solomon Wallace, com- missioners of highways; Edward E. Adams and Albert H. Strong, directors of the poor; Norman Roys, Matthew Rowen and Giles Thompson, inspectors of schools; John Yauney and Smith Hunt, fence-viewers and pound-masters.
The present area of the township is 22,500 acres, sections 34, 35 and 36 being set off from its southeastern corner and attached to White Pigeon, because that tract of land was separated from the balance of the township by a large swamp, and geographically and topographically was a portion of the area to the south.
The rich, sandy loam of Florence township has assured the successful cultivation of the cereals, fruit and mint, drainage be- ing mainly effected by the Fawn river, which flows southwest and west through its southeastern, southern and southwestern sec- tions toward Constantine and the St. Joseph river.
EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS.
The earliest settlements in Florence township were effected in its extreme southern and northern sections. In the spring of 1829 David Crawford and John Martin came from Monroe, Michi- gan, and located on section 32. This was in August and in the following month Leonard Cutler filed a claim in the same locality.
ALVIN CALHOON.
In October of the same year, Alvin Calhoon came with his wife and child and settled on the same section. He lived there for many years, was twice married and has numerous descendants in the township and county. Mr. Calhoon was a New Yorker, whose family fled from Monroe, Michigan, at the surrender of Hull in 1812, when he himself was a boy of ten; who afterward
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
went to Ohio, returned to Monroe and afterward to New York. He was married the first time in Rochester and came thence, when a young man, to White Pigeon prairie, whither he arrived in October, 1829.
In 1830 Jeremiah Lawrence moved into the township from Newville, a small settlement two miles east of the village of White Pigeon, and remained a resident of this section for many years; as did also Norman Roys, who located land in sections 5 and 6, in the north of the township.
In the spring of 1832 John Howard located with his family on section 6, dying there in 1875 at the age of ninety-three years.
Elisha Dimick arrived with his family in 1833, and took up his permanent residence on section 7; in 1834 George Pashby, Sr., brought his wife and two children to his new homestead in sec- tion 20, and in 1836 John Hagerman settled on the farm in section 18, later occupied by his son, William Hagerman.
How THINGS STARTED.
In the spring of 1829 David Crawford built the first log house within the present limits of Florence township, and sowed the first wheat in the succeeding fall. Alvin Calhoon and Jere- miah Lawrence sowed twenty acres the following year. The first corn was planted by the same parties in the spring of 1830, and the pioneer orchard was planted by John Coats on the southwest quarter of section 31 in the spring of 1831.
The first tavern was kept by Elisha Dimick, in 1833, in his log house on the farm, and he continued to conduct it until 1840.
The first postoffice was established in Florence township in 1840, and was kept at the tavern of Lyman Bean, a Maine Yankee, who, in 1834, drove a team of four horses the entire dis- tance from his home in the Pine Tree state to his claim on White Pigeon prairie, within the present limits of Florence township.
The first distillery for the extraction of oil of peppermint, was operated by Reuben and Otis Matthews in 1837. In the spring of that year they procured a few roots of Calvin Sawyer, who had just arrived from Ohio, which they planted on the Joseph Brown farm.
It is probable that the first marriage was that of John Phelps with Leafy Wilder in 1831. The first death was that of an Eng- lishman named Burnham, who came in the early part of 1831, and
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died during the year. The first birth in the township was that of Wolcott H. Lawrence, son of Jeremiah and Altha Lawrence; date, November 27, 1830.
In 1836 was built the Roys school-house, near the present No. 1; it was the pioneer of the township in its line.
In 1834 the Methodists inaugurated the religious life of the township by holding a class meeting, under the leadership of Alvin Calhoon, at the house of Benjamin Ball. They continued at that place of meeting until the building of No. 2 school-house in 1835. Rev. Erastus Kellogg preached during these first years.
BANNER MINT AND OIL TOWNSHIP.
For many years Florence township was one of the banner sections of St. Joseph county in the raising of peppermint and the distillation of oil. In 1876 the entire product amounted to four thousand pounds of oil, to make which required the yield of about three hundred acres. Among the heaviest operators in the industry of the palmy days were William Hagerman and William, George and Frank Roys.
FABIUS TOWNSHIP.
In the tripartite civil division of what is now St. Joseph county, which occurred with its organization in 1829, the town- ship of White Pigeon comprised the territory included in the present western six townships south of Park and Flowerfield. In the winter of 1832-3 the area now included in Fabius and Lockport was erected into a township named Buck's, in honor of the pioneer George Buck, who is made to figure especially in the history of Lockport, as his first location and residence in the county occurred within its limits.
In 1840 Lockport was detached, leaving the township of Buck's, and in the following year the state legislature gave the latter the more dignified name of Fabius.
STUDDED WITH SPARKLING LAKES.
In water surface, Fabius leads all the other townships, twenty-one hundred of its entire twenty-three thousand acres being covered by its lakes, ponds and streams. Its other most
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
noticeable feature is its broken surface, diversified by prairies and timber land, hills and knobs. The largest of the lakes, Corry's, lies in the western part of the township, and is named from Joshua Corry, a pioneer who located near it. Pleasant, Clear and Long (or Boot) lakes, so far as nomenclature goes, are victims of circumstance or local affection; besides these are numerous smaller bodies of water, which, of course, have names, but are so tiny that they are seldom designated on even county maps. But this commingling of sparkling lakes with varied and picturesque land surface makes Fabius township a constant de- light to the lover of nature.
The timber of the township consists of beech, maple, oak, walnut and elm, oak predominating. Johnny Cake prairie, so called from its small size and its shape, lies in the eastern part of the township, in the immediate vicinity of Three Rivers. The balance of the township was covered, as a whole, with heavy timber forming numerous oak openings.
FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER.
The first permanent settler in Fabius was Garrett Sickles, who came with his family in 1830, locating on Johnny Cake prairie in section 13. Although there were a number of settlers during the succeeding year, no one arrived to materially assist in the progress of the township until October, 1832, when Wil- liam F. Arnold, in company with his father's family, located on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 26. This was in the southeastern part of the township, and at the time of the coming of the Arnolds there were only four families within the present limits of Fabius township.
About 1833-4 came Deacon William Churchill, with his fam- ily, who also settled on section 26; also, J. W. Coffinbury, Andrew Burritt, Benjamin Smith, Charles Rice, Alonzo Hunt, Michael Beadle, Alfred Poe, Solomon Hartman and B. M. King.
FIRST MARRIAGE AND BIRTH.
One important and natural result of the coming of the Arnolds and Churchills to section 26 was the marriage of the neighboring son and daughter of the two families, William F. Arnold and Rose Churchill. The first child of this pioneer union
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
was Lydia Arnold, who was born February 28, 1835; four days later, Lydia's boy cousin joined her in the land of the living, the new arrival being Thomas, son of Randall Churchill.
FIRST ELECTIONS AND OFFICERS.
The first election after the formation of the township of Buck's was held in the spring of 1833 at the house of Hiram Har- wood on Johnny Cake prairie, the meeting being called for the purpose of designating the popular choice for justices of the peace; as the governor then appointed those functionaries, it may perhaps be more appropriately designated a nominating caucus than an election. The township was entitled to three justices, and the candidates in the field were Messrs. Hiram Har- wood, Jacob W. Coffinbury, George Buck and Charles B. Fitch. Some twenty votes were polled, the moderator, Charles Rice, collecting them in his hat, and announcing that Messrs. Har- wood, Coffinbury and Buck had been recommended to the gov- ernor by the majority of balloters.
After the township of Bucks was divided and Fabius had assumed its present area and name, the first election of officers was held at the house of Alfred Poe, April 5, 1841, and resulted in the choice of the following: Randall Churchill, Joel Redway and William Arney, assessors; Joel Redway, John Laughlin and Thomas Ward, school inspectors; William Arney, Joel Redway and Garrett Sickles, road commissioners; Charles Rice and Wil- liam Morrison, school directors; Charles J. Rice and Lewis K. Brodie, constables; Joel Redway, William Arney and Frederick Shurtz, justices of the peace. Frederick Shurtz was the first supervisor and Thomas Ward, the first clerk, after the creation of the present Fabius township.
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